Tajuddin Ahmad
History cannot be written as if nations had always been around, and as if men had not found countless ways to ignore their frontiers. Historians invite to make use of the riches that lie in the humanity to reveal connections that were once relevant to huge areas of the Bangladesh's world.
Let me go back to Bangladesh's Bango Taj Tajuddin Ahmad's life of 1971. We also wish to recall what Chinese philosopher Confucius once said aright, "Study the past if you would define the future."
We likewise want to hark back that history has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.
Thomas Carlyle's words are to the point for a great politician like Tajuddin, "History of the world is the biography of the great man. And I said: The great man always acts like a thunder. He storms the skies, while others are waiting to be stormed." And in 1971, Ahmad did the same thing to liberate the soil of Bangladesh from the cruel seizes of Pakistan's military force and their local mango-twigs.
Reading Bongo Taj Tajuddin Ahmad, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is like re-writing it for ourselves. We bring to a novel, anything we read, all our experience of the Bangladesh world. The flag that he held during our glorified Liberation War in 1971 is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. Our culture, language, history, and values are vital to uniting us as a nation.
6 December 1971. The day was the most definable moment of Bangladesh's first Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad's life because Indian government formally recognised Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign country.
On this day, the-then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi presented the proposal to recognise Bangladesh at a special session of the Indian Parliament. Indiraji said, "The unified rebellion of all the people of Bangladesh and the success of that struggle has made it increasingly clear that the so-called Mother Nation Pakistan is completely unable to bring the people of Bangladesh under their control."
Standing in the Lok Sabha, Indian PM Indira Gandhi further said, "The struggle of the people of Bangladesh against a huge obstacle in the history of the independence movement has created a new chapter. After careful consideration, India has decided to recognize Bangladesh."
On the same day, Pakistani invaders abandoned the Jessore Cantonment due to the attack of the Indian army and Bangladesh's freedom fighters. As a result, a large area of Bangladesh was freed.
She sent a letter of acceptance to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Tajuddin Ahmed. For the convenience of the readers, the verbatim copy of that original letter dated December 6, 1971 is appended below which was a watershed upshot in the august life of Bango Taj:
"Dear Prime Minister,
My colleagues in the Government of India and I were deeply touched by the message which his Excellency the acting president Syed Nazrul Islam and you sent to me on December 4. On its receipt, Government of India once again considered your request to accord recognition to the people's Republic of Bangladesh which you lead with such dedication. I am glad to inform you that in the light of the circumstances which prevail at present Government of India have decided to grant the recognition. This morning I made a statement of the subject in our parliament. I enclose a copy.
The people of Bangladesh have gone through much suffering. Your young men are engaged in a self-sacrificing struggle for freedom and democracy. The people of India are also fighting in defence of the same values.
I have no doubt that this companionship in endeavor and sacrifice will strengthen our dedication to great cause and the friendship between our two people. However long the road and however exacting the sacrifice that our two people may be called upon to make in the future, I am certain that shall emerge triumphant.
I take this opportunity to convey to you personally, to your colleagues and to the heroic people of Bangladesh my greetings and best wishes.
I should also like to take this opportunity to convey through you to his Excellency Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the People's Republic of Bangladesh the assurance of my highest esteem.
Yours sincerely,
Indira Gandhi
His Excellency Mr. Tajuddin Ahmad
Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Mujibnagar.
Tajuddin is regarded as one of the most influential and instrumental figures in the birth of Bangladesh, due to his able and patriotic leadership of the Bangladesh government in 1971, in which he connected the various political, military and cultural forces of Bangladesh's nationalism through a solitary platform.
He presided over the significant Bangladesh Sector Commanders Conference 1971 that created and formed the entire Bangladesh Armed Forces under the command of General M. A. G. Osmani. As the first Prime Minister, he led efforts to organise a guerilla warfare of Bengali civilians and armed forces and won international support. Ahmad sought the alliance of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the fight for Bangladesh's independence.
The war administration subsequently moved to Calcutta as a government-in-exile. Under his premiership, the majority of Bengali bureaucrats, diplomats and military officers serving Pakistan defected to the new Government of Bangladesh.
He was a key figure in supervising and mandating war efforts; and initiated numerous diplomatic and cultural missions which toured world capitals advocating the Bangladesh cause.
Ahmad would regularly visit the liberated regions of Bangladesh and inspire the Mukti Bahini (the Freedom Fighters) and raise their moral quality of spirit. During this period, Ahmad encountered some intra-party conflict led by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad who conspired to harm the national struggle for independence through a failed attempt to form a confederacy with Pakistan.
Among Ahmad's great diplomatic achievements were to win international support and recognition of Bangladesh as a sovereign and independent nation by the government of India. After the Mujib assassination in August 1975, Ahmad was arrested by the martial law government along with three other top League leaders - Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman and Muhammad Mansur Ali, and all four of them were killed by some officers of the Bangladesh Army in Dhaka Central Jail on the wee hour of 4 November 1975 on the instruction of President Khondaker Mostaq Ahmed who usurped power.
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership of Bango Taj Tajuddin Ahmad.
In his honour, he unselfishly, left behind us. Leaving his beloved children and wife, he put on hold, his dreams-our lives. Without his sacrifice, our cause would be lost, but he carried onward, no matter the cost. Many horrors he had endured and seen. Many faces had haunted his dreams. He cheered as our enemies littered the ground; and he cried as his sisters and brothers fell all around.
When the war was over, he along with his compatriots came back home. With a hand upon my heart, I feel the pride and respect; my reverence is revealed in the tears that now stream down my upturned face. As our flag waves above him, in his glory and grace, freedom was the gift that he and his paisanos unselfishly gave us.
Pain and death were the price that he ultimately paid. Every day, we give our utmost admiration to those who had fought to defend our nation in 1971 and 1975.
Tajuddin served our nation from day into night, not questioning if he would survive; he mended our bones and bodies too; and he soothed the spirits of dying souls. We echo this message across the seas. We will search for as long as it takes. He is not forgotten and he will always be in our hearts, in our prayers, in our minds for all time. A moment of silence, a moment of summons is his deliverance of body and soul.
To a sacred place that we all know deep in the shrines of our souls and in our hearts. To all, our Tajuddin like leaders past and present, God bless. Glory to the Bangladesh's Flag, long may she wave so many have been covered with her when they have gone to their grave. He stood and fought all night to keep us from harm.
Bongo Taj was a thousand winds that blew. He was the diamond glints on snow. He was the sunlight on ripened grain. He was the gentle autumn rain. When he woke in the morning's hush, he was the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight, he was the soft stars that shone at night. Do not stand at his grave and cry. He is not there; he did not die.
Then, we remember him to our flag is true, so please try to give him or them that which is due. For, before they enlisted to wear the suit of blue, they were civilians the same as we are!
I search through all my memories of the noble and the grand, the courage and the truth that we have been taught to understand of all the stories that are told. This shall be told of you, dear Tajuddin Ahmad, how you gave your life for those you knew.
There's a tear in the fabric of his being ... where the memories lie waiting to remind him ... of the horror and the carnage. Tajuddin who came to calmer waters where life came to normal. But he was having trouble fitting in, for, he had shaken bad internally; it's a price he paid for defending, but the dreams are never ending.
Tajuddin was our wall! He was the strength of our wall. He who left his families and dedicated his courage and time to a just cause for Bangladesh.
Standing in respectful memory, hoping to have no others built like him, but ready to serve, if ever call upon again. He was our wall, respect him, hold him, caress him, love him, as he loved us all.
And we know that night true peace for us would never come. Not for us. This suffering world is mine, mine to suffer in Tajuddin's grief. And he is the inspiration and the glue behind it all. I bless him every day. 'Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history because history is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.'
The writer is an independent political observer who writes on politics, political and human-centered figures, current and international affairs
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